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Sylvania 6201

Posted by nsgarch (A) on August 27, 2007 at 18:56:42

In Reply to: RE: RCA blackplate 12AT7's posted by tonyptony on August 27, 2007 at 16:52:31:

First the context: McIntosh MC275 MkIV (3)12AX7, (4)12AT7, (4)KT88 The first 12AX7 is an inverter, which since I'm using balanced IC's, isn't in the signal path. There needs to be two 12AT7's per pair of KT88's because of McIntosh's "Unity Gain" circuit which draws output from the cathode as well as the plate.

The best tube compliment (before venturing into 5751/6201-land) was NOS Gold Lion KT88, RCA blackplate/longplate 12AX's, and Telefunken 12AT's. I tried Tele AX and AT (very, very nice) and RCA blackplate AX and AT (too much of a good thing?) but the RCA/TFK combo was fantastic, and indeed the RCA AX's did "liven things up" beautifully without being "in you face".

Then I read Joe's Tube Lore and decided "If he's right, I don't want to miss the fun!" First I did the 5751's, and arrived at RCA 3-m bp, which are still in there, and terrific. I do have three NOS Sylvania 5751 3-m bp (Joe's Holy Grail) on the way. We'll see ;-)

Then I read up on 6201's, and somewhere in these forums read that Sylvania (in someone's humble opinion ;-) were the undisputed masters of the 12AT7/6201 tube. Okey, dokey, I'll bite. What the hell? More fun! While waiting to put together a couple matched pairs of Sylvania bp 6201, I tried some GE bp 6201. I have no real opinion about those -- they just weren't noticeably different from the Tele 12AT's. Maybe I was having a bad day, whatever . . . I should give them another chance I suppose?

Finally, I managed to put together four (out of seven tubes!) matched, 130% of new Gm, Sylvania Gold Brand black plates 6201's. I actually let them run in for a few hours and then played some of my reference LPs. With an already highly resolving system, the result was a sudden qualitative leap in sonics -- like when you get a cartridge loaded, VTA'd, and VTF'd in that 'magic zone', or when you hear a set of NOS Gold Lions against all other KT88's. OK, specifics: first I noticed the quiet, rendering more low level detail then I'd ever heard on some of my records; second, a wonderful relaxed smoothness that made me want to just keep turning up the volume, it was so effortless to listen to; and last, I guess, an almost perfectly balanced frequency distribution. I love my NOS GL KT88's because the sound has a kind of polish or shimmer that no other tube (I've heard) delivers. After putting in the Sylvania 6201's, there was even more of that. All despite the fact (don't forget) that 5751's and 6201's have roughly 70% the gain (mu) of their AX/AT brothers.

This is probably more than you wanted to know, but if you really want to OD on 12AT7/6201's, click on the link below and hit "slideshow". So many gorgeous BIG photos, you'll need insulin before it's over!

• 12AT7/6201 slideshow   (Open in New Window)

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